Often, if a work wants to portray a decaying or at least very old kingdom with entrenched rulers, they will have a leader who has a number[[note]]called an ordinal[[/note]], after their name (e.g. King Bob IX). These are always written in Roman numerals and the large ones can actually be TruthInTelevision: France, for example, had 18 Kings named Louis[[note]]Louis XVII never actually ruled but royalists proclaimed him the 'rightful king' from 1793-95 and when his uncle reclaimed the throne in 1814 he took the name Louis XVIII in deference to this[[/note]].

Often a case of successive generations of DeadGuyJunior.----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few rulers like that, like Riku Dold III, Elizabello II, or Outlook III (Sabo's father). On the non-ruler side of things, we also have Vander Decken IX.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* The ruler of Syldavia in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' was King Muskar XII.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]* Played straight in the ''Webcomic/GeneCatlow'' fanfic The Basalt City Chronicles, in which Priest-Emperor Zaykar Kh'Naral is the 24th of that name. His grandfather was Rraghan Kh'Naral CDLXVII (The 467th). It's said that their dynasty reaches back into prehistoric times.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* In the first ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' sequel, ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'', this is the case with the Mendez rulers of the mutant group in the buried remains of NYC. Mendez XXVI is the last one.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Pteppic in the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' is Pteppicymon XXVIII when he takes the throne (however briefly). That's a reference to the RealLife pharaohs of Egypt; the last pharaoh was Ptolemy XV, Caesar's son by Cleopatra. But the Ptolemies ruled only in the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which lasted about 250 years (and not all the Ptolemaic pharaohs were named Ptolemy!); before the Ptolemies were more than thirty-five previous dynasties and interstitial rules, dating back no less than three thousand years. And that's an incomplete list.* [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric of Melnibone]] is the eighth monarch to bear that name, and the 428th Emperor of Melnibone. His father was Sadric LXXXVI.** Melnibone did last over ''ten thousand'' years, after all.* ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' makes a good example. It's the year 10,191 of the Galactic Empire, and the current monarch is Shaddam IV, 81st Padishah Emperor. It's never explained within the original novel who exactly the previous three Shaddams were.** The ''Dune Encyclopedia'' has a list of every Emperor along with the dates of their reigns. Shaddam IV's immediate predecessors were Fredhrick XIX, Corrin XXV and Elrood IX. Shaddam III reigned 4200 years before Shaddam IV, Shaddam II was some 3000 years before that, and Shaddam I reigned 2400 years before him. Shaddam IV was the 81st "Padishah" Emperor, but the 370th Emperor of the Known Universe.*** Number 1 was Alexander the Great, so it isn't supposed to be [[FutureImperfect an accurate list]].** The final emperor is Leto II, though his namesake was just a duke. You see, his father Paul, son of Leto I, overthrew Shaddam IV.* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', due to [[NoodleIncident an incident]] involving [[NoodleImplements a prophylactic and a time-machine]], all Zaphod Beeblebroxes are numbered backwards, with the youngest being "Zaphod Beeblebrox I", his father "Zaphod Beeblebrox II", grandfather "Zaphod Beeblebrox III" and so on. A maverick judge in the third novel, who lived millions of years ago, is known as Zipo Bibrok 5x10[[superscript:8]], i.e. Zipo Bibrok (an underlined D), implying that he is a very distant ancestor. Er, [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble descendant]].* The [[Literature/{{Foundation}} Empire-Foundation]] novels of Creator/IsaacAsimov have a few examples in the Galactic Empire's 12,000-year history.** Swemmel II, an early monarch named in ''Pebble in the Sky'', Swemmel VII, his not-as-impressive namesake.** Millennia later, the final Trantorian emperor Dagobert IX, and his insane son who never gets a chance to become Dagobert X.** From what is revealed, the most common name amongst them is Agis (fourteen to be precise). Like the previous examples Agis XIV is nothing like his namesakes, though he didn't really want the job.** Cleon II in ''Literature/FoundationAndEmpire'', who took his name in memory of Cleon I, under whom the Empire reached its zenith. In contrast with the aforementioned examples, Cleon II likely surpassed his namesake, as Cleon I was not a forceful monarch and he preferred letting his First Ministers do the real governing, but Cleon II was a very active and powerful emperor.* Titus Groan is the 77th Earl of Literature/{{Gormenghast}}.* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's Literature/{{Hainish}} 'verse:** ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'' has Argaven XV of Karhide, latest of a dynasty that has lasted 700 years or so. There were a lot of kings before them, though.** In the short story "Winter's King", all the kings of Karhide who aren't called Argaven are called Emran. King Argaven XVII [[spoiler:commits to taking back the throne]] when she finds out that the corrupt Emran, [[spoiler:Argaven's child who is now older than her because Argaven has been off-planet and been affected by time dilation]], has chosen an heir with neither of the traditional names. [[spoiler:'"The kings of Karhide are called Emran," said Argaven, "and Argaven."']]* In Creator/JohnRingo's and Creator/DavidWeber's ''Empire of Man'' (aka Literature/PrinceRoger) space opera series, the 500-year-old dynasty has had ten Emperors and eight Empresses. All Empresses but the first have been named Alexandra -- Prince Roger's mother is the seventh. His sister is also named Alexandra. One of his middle names is Alexander.* Creator/CordwainerSmith's ''Norstrilia'' had Roderick [=McBan=] CLI.* In the ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series by Creator/HarryTurtledove, the Race is governed by a 50,000 year old imperial dynasty headed by the Ssumaz family. The current emperor is "37th Emperor Risson".* ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' gives us King Salamon LVII of the city-state of [[{{Egopolis}} Salamonis]].* Averted in ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'', in which there does not seem to have been more than one monarch with the same name in the country's history. Although the series does end by revealing that Lief and Jasmine named their one of their sons after his father, he is either a second or third son (his brother is named after Jasmine's father, in an aversion of DeadGuyJunior) and likely won't become king.* Variation in ''Literature/CodexAlera''. The First Lord is Gaius Sextus and the deceased heir was Gaius Septimus, meaning the First Lord is Gaius the 6th and the deceased heir is Gaius the 7th. This becomes a plot point in determining the next heir to the crown [[spoiler: Tavi is short for Octavian, aka Gaius the 8th.]] WordOfGod establishes that there have been many more Gaius-es than this would indicate -- the counting restarts when there is a dynasty change.* RafikSchami's fictional city of Morgana is technically a democracy with an elected president but practically always ruled by a member of the family Hadahek (a very large and costantly feuding family). At first, the presidents were numbered (President Hadahek LIII) but people soon got fed up with the increasing numbers, and added adjectives intead (President Hadahek the Brave) until they ran out of adjectives. Currently they name their presidents according to their hobbies (President Hadahek the Toy-Collector)* Parodied in ''Verhalen van de tweelingbroers'' by Tonke Dragt, when one of the main characters [[ItMakesSenseInContext suddenly becomes King of Tirania]], he has, despite being named Laurenzo, to adopt the name of Sutan the 467th[[note]]which is usually not even abbreviated, but written as ''Sutan the Fourhundredsixtyseventh''[[/note]], because all his predecessors [[StatusQuoIsGod have borne that name as well]]. [[spoiler: There being actually ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext two]]'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext Sutans the 467th]] isn't reflected in the numbering, though.]]* In the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' novels, the ruler of Tolnedra is always referred to as Ran [House] [Number] of the [Number] [House] Dynasty (If a given Emperor died without male issue, a different noble house would start a new dynasty rather than passing the throne to a brother, nephew or cousin of the previous emperor, with the throne often returning to a house that had held the throne at some other point in history). Arguably subverted when General Varana of House Anadile was adopted as the son of Ran Borune XXIII and took the throne as Ran Borune XXIV instead of Ran Anadile I.** They also seem to think that Polgara and Belgarath are hereditary names, and so the current one has an ordinal up in the hundreds--because the Tolnedrans can't wrap their minds around the fact that it's been the same two people all along.* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':** The Kings of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men in do this, sometimes more formally as "the Nth of his name." Since the books are set at the beginning of a new dynasty that comes from a different naming culture than the founding dynasty (Robert Baratheon was the first king of the Seven Kingdoms to be actually named Bob, not Jaerhaehaerysgargon), most of the kings we actually see are only the first of their name, but the previous Targaryen dynasty had racked up five Aegons, two Viseryses, two Jaeheryses, and two Aeryses.** Balon Greyjoy, whose dynasty dates back to the Targaryen conquest of the Ironborn (though they claim descent to ancient times), is apparently the ninth of his name.** While the exact number isn't known, the Starks have had a tradition of naming one son Brandon in every generation... going back 8,000 years to Brandon the Builder. Even if only one generation in five had a Bran in charge, and if the average reign was 20 years, that would make the current Bran Stark ([[spoiler:who is, in theory, the King in the North after Robb died at the Red Wedding]]) the 80th of his name** There's also brief mention of two kings of the Reach: Garth XII and Mern IX of House Gardener. The latter was the final king of the Reach, at the time of Aegon's Conquest.** Ironically, Robert Baratheon is the first of his name, and so is, as far as we know, Robb Stark.* In Suzette Haden Elgin 's Ozark cycle, the men of Ozark like to recycle names (as opposed to the women, who must be Properly Named by the Grannies from numerological principles), using numbers to distinguish. Complicated because the names are used just because someone likes the sound of them, and the numbers do not indicate direct descent, but just the number of times that name has been used... "John Jacob Traveler the Hundredth" means only that there were 99 John Jacob Travelers before him.* In John Boyd 's Last Starship From Earth, numbers indicate descent in a professional "dynasty". However, priests, in a one-upsmanship contest between Irish and Jewish factions (ItMakesSenseInContext) bend this by simply counting the number of alleged priests in their families. The ludicrous Father Kelly XL "apparently decided to count his ancestors who were Druid priests."* The not-exactly-hereditary nobles of Wright's ''Islandia'' count the number of their family to hold a particular position -- within certain limits. In his lost "cultural" notes on Islandia, Wright explained the system, noting that it was "sometimes confusing to foreigners" -- to which his daughter Sylvia added "I am a foreigner."* Assorted royal characters in the medieval fantasy ''Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm''. Since the series spans four centuries, certain names get reused; Marsellus I and III are major characters in two different books, and princes named Marsellus feature in two more. Kassandras, Atreuses and Kathrines also appear frequently.* Emperors of Arkon in the ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' universe use this in conjunction with their family name. So, Atlan da Gonozal => Emperor Gonozal VIII (there were seven emperors of that family before him, including his father) or Gaumarol da Bostich => Emperor Bostich I.* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' has Prince Caspian, from the [[Literature/PrinceCaspian book of the same name]], who ascends the Telmarine/Narnian throne as King Caspian X. We know his father was King Caspian IX, the rest of the Caspians are never mentioned.* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the rulers of Gondor and Arnor and the dwarves of Durin's line followed this practice. The numbers don't get particularly high, at least on the family trees included in the appendices; only the Durins, which get to Durin VII and Last, get beyond III. Aragorn was Aragorn II as Chieftain of the North, but took a new name, Elessar, as king. None of the rulers of Gondor or Arnor were numbered beyond II.** The Elves, in contrast, never reused names; there are several likely reasons for this, the most obvious being that they're immortal so it would be awkward. Yet seven of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor were named for Elves of the First Age (Denethor twice, Orodreth, Ecthelion twice, Egalmoth, Turgon); one may wonder what the Elves thought of that.* Parodied in the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' series, which has King Tehol ''the Only'' of Lether, who turned out so competent at ruling that people grew unhappy with how great life had become and they chased him out the gates, just so they could go back to being miserable again.* Subverted in Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil. The Dread Emperors and Empresses of [[TheEmpire Praes]] never use their original names as regnal names, instead choosing various NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast like [[ShoutOut Maleficent]], [[CardCarryingVillain Terribilis]], [[RefugeInAudacity Treacherous]] or [[AwesomeMcCoolName Triumphant]]. It is also very rare for the Tyrants to use an ordinal number, partly because rule of Praes isn't hereditary- Tyrants ascend the tower exclusively through KlingonPromotion. The only names known to have been re-used are the name of the empire's founder Maleficent and Terribilis (though it isn't known why Terribilis was re-used, it was the second Terribilis who is best-known and the first was a historical footnote).* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Kasile is the seventh Queen of Ataidar to have this name. There have also been twelve queens named "Fran" and nine kings named "Steiner". [[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name, actually. Most prospective kings also use this style, even if they are the first of their name. "First Of His Name" is even the title of Season 4's fifth episode.* ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' had King [[PunnyName Friday XIII]] of the Land of Make-Believe.* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', when [[spoiler:Londo Mollari]] becomes Emperor of the Centauri Republic (as prophesied by Emperor Turhan's wife early on), he becomes "Emperor [[spoiler:Mollari]] II;" evidently, Centauri Emperors are known by the names of their Houses (which, fittingly for the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Romanesque]] Centauri, follows Roman practice), and House [[spoiler:Mollari]] had previously provided one Emperor.* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Rygel XVI is a diminutive Dominar-in-exile of the Hynerian Empire, ruler of 600 billion subjects. He was overthrown by his cousin Bishan (whose number is not given) and remained in exile for over 130 cycles. He finally regains his throne in the follow-up graphic novel. His greatest hero is his ancestor Rygel I.* Liz-Ten in ''Series/DoctorWho'' is actually Queen Elizabeth X of Starship UK.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' features Vlaakith CLVII, Lich Queen of the Githyanki in the ''Planescape'' setting, and through ''Planescape'' in pretty much every other setting as well. This Vlaakith, by virtue of being an ancient undead abomination, has also ruled for [[ThousandYearReign at least a thousand years]], although time doesn't exactly work the same way on their home plane.* The City of Brass, capital city and trade center of the Plane of Fire in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' is ruled by Hakim Khalid Suleiman XXIII. Outsiders, such as Hakim, a jinn, do not biologically age past a certain point, and may remain in power indefinitely, barring outside influence.* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'': Seldon’s empire lasted for millennia and the last of the line was Seldon LXIX (that’s 69th ).* The founder of the Third Imperium in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' was Cleon Zhunastu I, apparently a ShoutOut to Foundation. His son was named Cleon II, but he abdicated the throne. Centuries later when his successor's dynasty died out the Imperial moot tracked down his distant descendant and named him Cleon III, unfortunately he turned out to be [[TheCaligula insane]] and was assassinated. Following emperors sometimes were numbered but due to changes in dynasty they rarely got to large numbers.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]* Probably implied in ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}''. At the time of the play's setting, in the beginning of the 19th century, there are depending on how you look at it, either 22 or 23 "bad baronets" of Ruddigore. As the bulk of baronetcies were from the mid 1600s, it seems a bit short of time for their to have been that many of them. Likely, since they are cursed to die if they don't commit at least one evil act daily, they have a high turn-over rate.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' gives us King Guardia XXI, who rules his eponymous nation in the year 600 AD, and his descendent four centuries hence, King Guardia XXXIII.* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has King Ralph [[RunningGag XI]]. Who ''constantly'' gets imprismed. By a magical, indestructible [[spoiler:sausage]] that somehow keeps coming back.* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has this as a borderline RunningGag when you scan busts of Bryyo's ancient rulers found all over the planet... until you reach '[[AfterTheEnd The last emperor of Bryyo]]'.* The plot of the obscure puzzle game ''BlueIce'' begins with the death of Edward the 712th.* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Princess Garnet]] is the 17th [[spoiler: actually 18th]] person to hold that name. The game doesn't elaborate on how many people have held the name Brahne, but it can be assured that there won't be any more after the game's events.** A lesser example from the same game, but the regent of Lindblum is [[RecurringElement Cid]] Fabool [[ArcNumber IX]].* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' ** The series has [[TheEmperor Emperor]] [[TheGoodKing Uriel Septim VII]], the 21st and final[[note]]Though proclaimed by High Chancellor Ocato, Martin was never officially crowned Emperor[[/note]] Emperor of the Septim dynasty. Crosses over with MeaningfulName and NumerologicalMotif, as the Archangel Uriel is traditionally the seventh and last in Judeo-Christian tradition, while "Septim" comes from septem, Latin for "seventh".** Other historical examples include the four Emperors named Pelagius Septim (of whom Pelagius III was the infamous "[[TheCaligula Mad Emperor]]") and, from the previous dynasty, the three Emperors named Reman Cyrodiil.* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier2'': Gustave XIII [[spoiler: at least until he was proven to have no aptitude in Anima]], who also had a younger half brother named Gustave.* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has King Zora XVI ruling Zora's Domain; ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' is set about a century later and refers to a recently-deceased King Zora, who presumably had an even higher number.* An accidental version in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': Hero units all gets their own proper names (Gavinrad the Dire, Sage Truthbearer or Manadar the Healer for paladins, etc.) but if there are more heroes than there are names, the list rolls around with the new ones having II, III, etc. added to their names (highly unlikely unless ''every'' player picks the exact same heroes though, or is playing a custom map).* The main conflict of ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' started when King Allant XII woke up the Old One, which proceeded to unleash the Deep Fog over the Northern Kingdom of Boletaria, summoning powerful demons in the process.* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', we find out when his full title is used that Peony is Emperor Peony IX. His father was Emperor Karl VI, and there's a statue of a different Emperor Karl in Keterburg.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': Lucis has made it to its 113th king, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, when the story starts. This is the the number of the king, by the way, not the number of Regises: [[spoiler:the crown prince, Noctis, is crowned Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]* One Strong Bad Email from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' had Strong Bad mention that there were actually ''twelve'' King of Towns. And for some reason, the fourth King of Town was an onion.** He was the most popular one.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]* ''{{Webcomic/Erfworld}}'' has King Saline the Fourth (IV). [[PunnyName Think about it]].* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus, also known as Aaronev VI, the Prince of Sturmhalten. It can only be presumed that if his son, Aaronev Tarvek Sturmvoraus, was allowed to remain in the city and became officially recognized as its ruler, he would be known as Aaronev VII. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* The minor character King Bushwick the Thirty-Third (or "Thoity-Thoid") of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' seems to invoke this, but then it is revealed that he is the island's first king, who is called that because he lives on Bushwick and 33rd.* The song "The Phony King of England" from ''Disney/RobinHood'' mentioned a suggestion that King John I should be now known as King John "the Worst!"** There had been implied at least one "King John" prior, since the song goes "Too late to be known as John the First..."*** The singers may have been making the not too unrealistic assumption that John would never become king; so long as his elder brother Richard was alive, Richard's potential son would take precedence. But Richard died suddenly and childless.* King Julien XIII, self-proclaimed ruler of the lemurs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}''. ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' introduces his EvilUncle, King Julien XII. A history book gives a bit of information on Kings Julien I and II, while all other Juliens are mentioned in passing with titles rather than numbers.* At the end of the PilotMovie of ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'', Sofia asks her stepfather why he's called King Roland the Second; he explains that his father was the first King Roland. Cue a TitleDrop from Sofia.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]* Regnal numbering only began in 12th or 13th century Europe; numbers prior to this have been applied in retrospect by historians. Before this, monarchs were distinguished by nicknames (e.g. the English kings Edmund the Magnificent and Edmund Ironside) or by paternity.** This is why Edward Longshanks of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet (r. 1272-1307) is called Edward I even though three previous Edwards (Edward the Elder, Edward the Martyr, and Edward the Confessor) had been King of England (well King of the English...) before the Norman Conquest of 1066.** James I and James II are properly "James I and VI" and "James II and VII" (of England and Scotland respectively), double dipping this trope. Most of the other monarchs of the UK, both before and after the act of Union, haven't recycled names from before the Scottish and English thrones merged. Current protocol is that the higher number takes precedence, hence Edward VII, Edward VIII and Elizabeth II. In the cases of Mary II, William III and William IV, the numbers happen to match: England and Scotland had each had one Mary and two Williams before the crown union. Neither had an earlier Charles or George or Victoria, so that wasn't an issue. Conveniently, since 1707, no monarch has had a name with a higher Scottish numbering than English, and the royals are unlikely to do so; thus we are unlikely to see David III, James VIII, or Robert IV on the throne anytime soon.*** In the 1950s, Scottish extremists began a campaign of blowing up mailboxes with the "EIIR" cypher (characteristically punishing the SENDERS) to highlight that Scotland never had an "Elizabeth I", so could not have an "Elizabeth II". ** There was some talk about the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge being named Alexander, in which case he would have had to be "Alexander IV", but in the end he was named George (full name George Alexander Louis).** The British monarchy is also relatively tame on this trope and none of the numbers have gotten into the double digits yet. Eight Henries and Edwards, seven Jameses and six Georges.** Averted with, among others, King Stephen, King John and Queen Anne. No numbers since they're the only monarchs to bear that name on the English/British throne. Anne doesn't stand out since there haven't been that many reigning queens but Stephen hasn't been recycled since 1154. (Not all that surprising, since King Stephen reigned during a disastrous civil war and also was the first and only member of the House of Blois to sit on the English throne, without becoming part of the ancestry of his successors. Queen Anne, on the other hand, was quite a successful monarch, so the current queen had no problem using that name for her daughter.) Contrary to a popular misconception, the name John has been reused in the English and British royal family -- for instance, his grandson Edward I's prematurely-deceased eldest son was named John, the current royals are all descended from John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, and the youngest son of George V was Prince John (1905–19).** UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria has also not been recycled, but considering that she was relatively recent and that there has only been one queen regnant since her, this may not mean anything. It may be permanently unused to preserve the uniqueness, but then people thought the same thing about Elizabeth until 1952 (when [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen the present monarch]] first learned of her accession, her personal secretary asked her, "By what name shall you be known?" expecting her to pick a different regnal name[[note]]Most likely her second middle name Mary, becoming Mary III[[/note]]; the ever-practical Queen surprised him and said, "My own, of course.") *** Victoria, apparently a bit full of herself, hoped that all her successors would be named Albert or Victoria (or Victor). Her son Prince Albert Edward ditched that idea to become King Edward VII. His grandson Albert thought the name a bit too Germanic for a British king, and became King George VI (though he had a younger brother named George), as a symbol of continuity with his father King George V, which was meant to try to bring stability back to the country after the Abdication Crisis.** Charles Philip Arthur George, the present Prince of Wales, once said he intended to be "King George VII", not "Charles III", as the two previous Kings named Charles [[{{Understatement}} had been rather unlucky]]. This means that his grandson will in all likelihood be George VIII (assuming he doesn't want to mess with people by becoming Louis I or worse, Alexander IV).[[note]]There having been three Kings Alexander of Scotland, the Scots would likely be very angry about him calling himself "Alexander I," and whether or not Scotland ever actually goes for independence, it's unlikely to ditch the monarchy, so Scottish opinion will matter a lot.[[/note]] Charles' first son William on the other hand will presumably be become "William V".** In the (now highly unlikely) event that Prince Harry became king, he would likely be Henry IX. (Although the last Henry was somewhat unsavoury, the alternatives are worse; his full name is "Henry Charles Albert David," considering that "Charles" is probably more of a no-no than "Henry"--see the bit about his dad--"Albert" is permanently reserved for Queen Victoria's Prince Consort, and "David" would not only require everyone to be confused about "David III" but would also remind his uncles about the other David--their late and unpleasant great-uncle Edward VIII, known to his family by that name.)* Pope John XXIII (actually the 21st Pope of this name, due to some confusion in numbering; Antipopes make everything terrible -- the 20th century John XXIII is also the second John XXIII). Also Benedict XVI, Gregory XVI, Pius XII, Leo XIII, Clement XIV, Innocent XIII. Before our current Pope Francis, the last Pope to have an original name was [[Franchise/StarWars Lando]] (no, honestly!), reigned AD 913–14 (unless one counts "John Paul" as original).** Interestingly, the first John Paul ''actually called himself'' "John Paul I" [[labelnote:Latin]]Ioannes Paulus '''Primus'''[[/labelnote]], which means Francis is unquestionably the first since Lando not to have an ordinal.** Also, there's confusion in the numbering of several papal names, including numbers that were mistakenly skipped over.*** This is a plot point in Creator/JamesBranchCabell's {{Jurgen}}* In fact, the French had approximately 18 kings named Louis. And one Louis-Phillippe. Oh, and ten named Charles and six named Philip. The current heir to the house of Bourbon styles himself as Louis XX (Louis XIX having been the nominal last king of France for 20 minutes in 1830).** Deliberately invoked from the 17th Century through to the French Revolution: every heir in direct line for the throne was given the first name Louis, for '''eight generations''' beginning with Louis XIII.[[note]]XV was XIV's great-grandson; XVI and XVIII were XV's grandsons; XVII was XVI's son, never crowned. In each case, the intervening generations were also all named Louis.[[/note]] In fact, Louis XVI and Louis XVIII were brothers, both named Louis but with different middle names. The first Bourbon king (Henry IV, who succeeded in 1589) was ten generations from his last royal ancestor, Louis IX (who died in 1270), and it was perhaps to reinforce their claim to the throne that the Bourbons named most of their sons Louis, although the fact that Louis IX was the only Capetian king to be canonised as a saint may have been even more important.** There were also four Frankish kings named Clovis, which was an early form of the name that became Louis, so the real number could arguably be 22. * The numbering of the kings and emperors of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire not surprisingly is a bit chaotic, even though the ordinal numbers go up as high as 7 (Henry (Heinrich) VII and Charles (Karl) VII); whether a king was crowned Holy Roman Emperor or not did not affect the ordinal number. However, as at various points you had a ruler appointing his eldest son co-ruler and having him crowned during his lifetime in a bid to turn the elective monarchy into a hereditary one or two rulers vying for the title, often when either the great feudal lords or the pope set up an "anti-emperor". Co-rulers who predeceased their fathers and anti-emperors usually did have a number assigned to them, but that rule was not strictly enforced. In one case they may also have forgotten that there already was a king or emperor of the same name and number, thus the list includes two rulers called Louis (Ludwig) IV, to wit Louis the Child (r. 900-911) and Louis the Bavarian (1314-1347). There are also rulers listed as Henry (VI.) (crowned in 1147 as co-ruler of Conrad III, but predeceased him) and one called Henry (VII.) (he was the son of Frederick II, crowned as co-emperor in 1222, but deposed by his father after he rebelled against him) as well as Henry VI (1169-1197) and Henry VII (1308-1313). Another complication occurred when Frederick of Habsburg came to the throne: when he was made king in 1440, he was assigned the number IV, counting his Habsburg predecessor Frederick the Fair (anti-king to Louis IV the Bavarian 1314-1330) as legitimate, but when he was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1452 he was renumbered Frederick III. * Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is probably only the 10th king named Carl/Charles/Carolus; when Swedish kings first adopted regnal numbers in the 16th century, they based them on a history that was pretty much entirely fabricated for events before the 11th century, and this history listed a number of Carls who likely never existed. It also lists a few rulers who ''did'' exist, but whose described connection to Sweden is questionable -- for instance, in the unlikely event that an Attila rises to the throne of Sweden, he would be Attila [[UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun II]] according to that history. (That's a common name in Iceland, spelt ''Atli''.)** Other Swedish examples include Erik XIV and Gustaf VI.* Heinrich LXXII, Prince of Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf. But unlike with most European monarchies, his number does not indicate that he was preceded by 71 previous rulers also named Heinrich. By tradition, all male members of the House of Reuss are named Heinrich, and are numbered by order of birth within the family in general. In the Reuss Younger Line, the numbering system was reset at the beginning of each century; thus Heinrich LXXII's high number is directly related to his having been born at the very end of the 18th century (1797).** This is an {{enforced}} and {{exaggerated}} example of [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous Naming After Somebody Famous]]; the House of Reuss ''requires'' all male descendents to be named Heinrich after Henry (Heinrich) VI, Holy Roman Emperor, since the 12th century. In the Elder Line the numbers increase until 99 is reached and then start again at 1. So Heinrich LXLIX is followed by Heinrich I. That's why the current head of the House is Heinrich XIV (son of Heinrich IV), though the last actual ruler of Reuss (Elder Line) was Heinrich XXVII, who was the grandson of Heinrich LXVII. Confusing, no?* AncientEgypt was ruled by ''thirty-three'' separate dynasties over the course of 3,000 years.** Surprisingly, only two names (Rameses and Ptolemy) were used more than 8 times (11 and 15, respectively). See, time is no excuse for lack of originality!*** Unfortunately, no. There are also more than 8 Injotefs, at least 8 Neferhoteps and, with new discoveries, probably a whole slew of other ephemeral king names. Clouded by the fact that a lot of kings used several names and titles at once, Like Djoser, whose throne name was Netjer-ikhet. ** The Cleopatra who wooed Caesar and Marc Antony was actually Cleopatra VII.*** But not the seventh ruling Cleopatra.* The kings of Thailand, who have traditionally adopted the regnal name "Rama" since the late 18th century. The current monarch, Vajiralongkorn, has the regnal name Rama X. It's variable whether a king of Thailand will actually treat "Rama" as a regnal name or merely a title. In the current Chakri dynasty, only Vajiravudh (Rama VI) has actually called himself Rama. But it's considered an appropriate way for other people to refer to any kind as "Rama (number)", because Thai tradition is that the king's name is sacred and should not normally be spoken.** The kings of earlier Thai/Siamese dynasties included four kings named "Ramathibodi" (Overlord Rama), four named "Borommarachathirat" ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS or "Borommaracha Thirat" or "Boromma Rachathirat"]]), nine named "Sanphet", and four named "Borommaracha", all of which are numbered. Though many were ultimately better known by their birth names.* In the [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever British peerage]], a hereditary peer of the realm gets a number with his ''title'' rather than with his ''name'': thus "The Nth Duke of Somewhere". If a title lapses and is later created again, the numbering starts over again. E.g., Andrew Russell is the 15th Duke of Bedford, of the Fifth Creation (1694) of that title; the First Creation was in 1414; and before that, there were two creations of Earls of Bedford, one of which remains as a subsidiary title of the Duke of Bedford, so the Duke of Bedford is also the (N+4)th Earl of Bedford, as the Dukedom was created for the 5th Earl. (This isn't entirely academic; if the male heirs of the first Duke ever die out, the heir of a younger son of the fourth Earl will become Earl ''but not Duke'' of Bedford.) The Duke is also the 15th Marquess of Tavistock (the title was given to the 5th Earl at the same time as his dukedom); however, the person usually who ''uses'' the title and is thus ''called'' Lord Tavistock is the Duke's (eldest and thus far only) son Henry, as a courtesy title--but although Lord Tavistock ''uses'' that title, he is not actually the 15th Marquess of Tavistock (which is his father) or the 16th (which he will only become when his father dies). Now, although Andrew Russell is (among other titles) an earl, he is not the Earl Russell: that's his distant cousin John Francis Russell, 7th Earl Russell, heir of a title created for the junior line descending from [[UsefulNotes/EarlRussell John Russell]], third son of the 6th Duke. On yet another hand, the Duke is also the 19th ''Baron'' Russell, a title awarded to his ancestor in 1539 for services to UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor...which is not to be confused with the title [[NamesTheSame Baron Russell]] ''of Liverpool'', which belongs to the descendants of an unrelated Victorian and Edwardian-era journalist and Liberal politician (the 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool and the [[Creator/BertrandRussell 3rd Earl Russell]] sent a joint letter to the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Times]]'' in 1951 clarifying that "that neither of us is the other"). And now you know why it's critically important to include both the number and the full title when referring to British peers on first reference.* In the Eastern Ijaw Kingdoms of Nigeria (Okrika, Opobo, Bonny, Kalabari, Nembe), kingship is the property of a particular War Canoe House (a trading company), and with its Chief becoming the Monarch. Each monarch officially reigns under the House name, adopting the regnal number following his predecessor. Most of them are in the double digits now.** For instance, the King of Kalabari is the tenth from the Amakiri House/Dynasty, and has the given name Abiye Suku, so he reigns as King Abiye Suku, Amakiri X.* Subverted with the actor David H. Lawrence XVII. He is not the seventeenth David H. Lawrence in his family... he is the seventeenth David H. Lawrence to be registered on Website/{{IMDb}}.** Creator/MattSmith, who plays [[Series/DoctorWho the Eleventh Doctor]], managed to get the title of Matt Smith XI on Website/IMDb as well.** A similar numbering was also used in some armies to distinguish officers of the same name within one unit (or, ca. 1800, officers of the rank of colonel and above within the entire Russian army), or even privates within a regiment.* The House of Savoy, formerly reigning over Italy, tried to do this with the names Vittorio Emanuele and Umberto, their last four kings being, in order, Vittorio Emanuele II (originally King of Sardinia, his minister Cavour managed to expand the state enough to claim kingship over Italy), Umberto I, Vittorio Emanuele III and Umberto II, with the [[HeirClubForMen heir and only male child]] being named Vittorio Emanuele. The situation is made more complex by the existence of three previous Umberto with the title of ''Count'' of Savoy, including the founder Umberto I the White-Handed. Other popular names were Amedeo (they got to Amedeo IX between counts and dukes, plus its presence as the second part of the regnal names of a duke, a duke-turned-king and a king) and regnal names containing Carlo and Vittorio as the first name and Emanuele as second.** It is an Italian tradition to name first and second son after paternal and maternal grandfathers.* The current Queen of Denmark may only be the second Margrethe, but her predecessors embodies this trope to its fullest: She is the first monarch in more than 450 years who isn't named either ''Frederick'' or ''Christian'', with her father being Frederick IX and her grandfather being Christian X, and probably only because both were considered somewhat unsuitable names for a woman. She overlooked the fact that "Margrethe I" was not actually Queen "of" Denmark (she founded the Kalmar Union, a union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). This caused a bit of trouble when naming her heir apparent, her first son, since she wanted to keep going with the custom; they eventually decided that since her father was a Frederick, she would be counted as a Christian, and thus he was named Frederick. As Crown Prince Frederick has named his son Christian, it appears the tradition will resume with Frederick X followed by Christian XI.** It is worth noting, however, that Margrethe wasn't the heir to the throne when she was born[[note]] That honour went to her uncle[[/note]], as the line of succesion at the time was still very much an HeirClubForMen. And Margrethe naming her son Frederik also solved a long-running issue of the Christians and Frederiks being out of sync [[note]]Before her, the line went Christian IX, Frederik VIII, Christian X, Frederik IX[[/note]]. Curiously, the one time a King tried to break the synchronized line[[note]]Christian IV who named his heir Christian[[/note]], the heir died before him, and the second in line became king as Frederik III.** Earlier in Denmark's history, there were Eric VII and Canute VI.* The Arab monarchies traditionally avert this--although names repeat, the tradition was to identify rulers as [[IAmXSonOfY Fulan bin Allan]][[note]]"Fulan" and "Allan" are Arabic equivalents of "John Doe" and "Richard Roe", and "bin" means "son of"[[/note]], there are two modern monarchies which are easing into this:** Jordan is currently on Abdullah II, son of Hussein, who has named his son and heir Hussein, making "Hussein II" likely...and it's likely that Hassan II will name his son and heir (when he has one) "Abdullah."** Morocco is already here; the current king is Muhammad VI, and has named his son Hassan after his father Hassan II. ** Note that it's an Arab tradition to name your eldest son after your father. Assuming Jordan and Morocco remain monarchies, we can look forward to some very high-numbered Husseins alternating with Abdullahs in Jordan and Hassans alternating with Muhammads in Morocco in the future... (A bit like Denmark, actually...)** The last Muslim king of Granada, while commonly called Boabdil, had the regnal name Muhammad XII. He vied for the throne with his uncle El Zagal, also known as Muhammad XIII. It is possible that there was a failure in record keeping and that they should be called Muhammad XI and Muhammad XII instead.* In Tsarist Russia, the most often used name for the Tsars was, unsurprisingly, Ivan. There were six of them. But after the final two Ivans turned out to be ill-fated (Ivan V was a weak-minded co-regent to the more famous UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, and Ivan VI was deposed as a baby, grew up in prison, then was killed), the Romanovs ceased to use this name. Soon after they started to alternate Alexanders and Nicholases, but [[RedOctober Revolution]] happened before they managed to accumulate a lot of these.** Before Paul I, the standard naming tradition to identify monarchs without an ordinal was by name and patronymic, similar to the Arabic custom above (Anna Ioannovna[[note]]Anna, daughter of Ioann (Ivan)[[/note]], Alexei Mikhailovich[[note]]Alexei, son of Mikhail[[/note]] etc). Before UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, this was used for all tsars at all, the ordinals weren't used and were assigned postfactum by historians.* Subverted with King Willem Alexander from the Netherlands, who would be Willem V (William the Fifth), but in an interview prior to his inauguration, he said: --> I mean, I'm not a number. You know, Willem Five is next to Bertha 21 in the meadow. [[note]] Referring to cow names (The first female calf of a cow named Bertha would be named 'Bertha 2' and so on) [[/note]]* Examples from Spain include Alfonso XIII, Ferdinand VII, and the current monarch Felipe VI.* The Byzantine Emperors had Constantine XI, Michael IX, John VIII, Andronikos V, and Alexios V.* In Norway, the current king is Harald V, with his two immediate predecessors being Olav V and Haakon VII. Going back farther, we have Magnus VII.* The Ottoman Empire had Mehmed VI, Murad V, and Mustafa IV.* In Tonga, the current king is Tupou VI. He is only the sixth monarch of the country, as each monarch included the name Tupou, the name of their royal house, in their regnal name along with their personal name, though even that still qualifies as three of the previous monarchs were named George.* Bavaria was particularly fond of having rulers named Ludwig. Not only did they have three kings named Ludwig, when they were a duchy, they had 10 dukes named Ludwig, for a total of 13 rulers named Ludwig. They also had 16 dukes named Henry, five named William, five named Albert, and seven named Otto, which, combined with a later King Otto, had six rulers named Otto. When Bavaria was an Electorate, there were four electors named Maximilian, the last of which became the first king. Combined with the later King Maximillian II, there were five rulers named Maximilian.